Jesus Hates Papyrus » advertising

Thinking outside the toilet

Michael Buckingham — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 15:23:41 +0000

This post in the Church Marketing Lab reminded me of some very creative advertising located where else…the bathroom. A great example of looking at things from a different perspective. Who ever thought that you could use a urinal to sell a mini cooper or raise awareness with toilet paper?

These ideas work not because they are clever, but because they rattle your mind. The mind loves to be surprised, but in order to do that you have to push your creativity outside of your comfort zone. Enjoy!

Mini Cooper: “Test your handling skills”

ESPN: “Soccer is good everywhere, but it is much better on ESPN channels.”

Schizophrenia awareness: “Schizophrenia can be treated. Seek help.”

Wash Your Hands: “92% of guys say they washed. 34% were lying.”

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a…logo

Michael Buckingham — Wed, 07 May 2008 14:30:16 +0000

Move over blimp, someone wants your airspace. Using a soapy foam type substance, Flogos, will launch your cloud-like logo into the sky. The flogo clouds currently come as large as 48 inches and they are working on a 6-foot cloud.

The Flogo machine works much like a Play-Doh Fun Factory. A boxlike contraption produces a specially formulated white foam in a big round tub and forces it upward through a stencil. Once the foam is several inches thick, a metal cutter slices it and a faux cloud floats into the sky.

The clouds travel up to 30 miles and as high as 20,000 feet…a new cloud is created every 15 seconds.

Walt Disney will soon have its own cloud factory, floating Mickey Mouse head shaped over Walt Disney World in Orlando. Imagine advertising your church in the heavens. Fun stuff.

The billboard formula (hint: less is more)

Michael Buckingham — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 17:50:10 +0000

It doesn’t get bigger than a billboard in church marketing…well, unless you make the unfortunate choice of a giant Jesus statue…so what do you put on such a thing?

It’s the size that gets many in trouble…more size, more content, right? Wrong. 7 words max.

Your biggest challenge is catching people’s attention. You need come up with something that is really different, off the wall, if you put up something unexpected you’ll have a big advantage over everything else that’s going on as I drive down the road with my iPod on, kids fighting and my mind on my destination.

Billboards are not informational. They are either directional (think hotels and restaurants) or in the case of churches they are a reminder medium. You are reminding them of who you are, reminding them of your brand and connecting them back to other materials you are using. This is not the place for all the details…give them one place to go for more information (website). I know it will feel like you need to put the times and address and all that information but if you do, no one will pay attention to it.

There most be support for your billboard. Other print materials, promotional items…a billboard can’t remind you of something you’ve never seen before. A great example is a campaign by Grand Rapids First. They handed out hundreds of bottles of water with a design we created “Be Refreshed”. Later that month when people drove by the large “Be Refreshed” billboard they were reminded not just of the campaign that was started that day, but also the great people they met that were handing out those bottles of water.

So here’s the formula: great image + logo + website + supporting materials = successful campaign

What do you think, do you have a different formula for billboard success?